NATO is in talks to deploy more nuclear weapons, taking them out of storage and putting them on standby amid the growing threat from Russia and China, the head of the alliance was quoted by Reuters as saying.
Jens Stoltenberg told Britain's Telegraph newspaper that there had been live consultations between members about using transparency around the nuclear arsenal as a deterrent.
I will not go into the operational details of how many nuclear warheads should be operational and how many should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues, he clarified.
Transparency helps send the direct message that we are a nuclear union. NATO's goal is a world without nuclear weapons but as long as nuclear weapons exist we will remain a nuclear alliance because a world where Russia, China and North Korea have nuclear weapons and NATO does not is more dangerous world, Stoltenberg pointed out.
In his words, nuclear weapons are NATO's ultimate guarantee of security and a means of preserving peace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned that Moscow could use nuclear weapons to defend itself in extreme circumstances. He accuses the US and its European allies of pushing the world to the brink of nuclear confrontation by providing Ukraine with billions of dollars worth of weapons.